Andrew Synowiez-US PRESSWIRE
As our own Paul Seaver reported earlier here, Texas Longhorn’s Point Guard Myck Kabongo is under an NCAA investigation for possibly having an improper relationship with an agent. The agent is Rich Paul, who represents Lebron James, and Paul has said his relationship with Kabongo is nothing that would purposely damage either he or the Longhorn’s program.
Obviously, with the high expectations put on Kabongo this year, any suspension in any form would do great damage to the Longhorn’s chances this upcoming season. But until further details emerge, as of this moment, this is just an investigation.
However, this does raise some important questions. Outside my favorite topic, the NCAA being just a building that wields it fictitious power poorly, what should be the proper relationship between an amateur athlete and a sports agent.
Currently the rule states that an agent is allowed to have a relationship with a player and/or his family as long as no improper benifits are exchanged.
Okay, let’s get something straight. Letting an agent have any form of a relationship with a player automatically results in benefits. Whether they are deemed “improper” is unfortunately up to that fake building in Indianapolis. But by virtue of logic, a hard thing to grasp for the NCAA, the agent is already getting a step ahead by building a rapport with the student-athlete. And trust me, he’s not doing it out of the goodness of his heart. The agent is lending his helping hand, if not so financially but with professional advice, in hopes that the player becomes a future client.
The player themselves benefit as well. The agent can give the athlete advice on whether or not to enter the NBA Draft early or not. Generally the rule of thumb for the agents is to push the kid to the NBA as quickly as possible, to maximize the profit off of said player. But in cases where agents feel like they already “have” the player as a client, they will actually feed them accurate information that should result in the best possible decision made by the player.
College basketball is one of the hardest collegiate sports to “arbitrarily oversee”. Players get bombarded with questionable offers as soon as someone realizes they are good enough to play AAU ball. Blaming the student-athlete(or what I like to call them, the CHILD), is horrifying when you think about it. But let us continue to punish the kids here while a building, despite many flaws if its own, continues to rule the land.
The NCAA rule states that “money” or “gifts” provided to a student-athlete or his family is in direct violation of the rule. It does not rule against having an agent around though. This is the equivalent of telling a serial killer(agents) who targets people with 1 nostril(the players), listen here Mr. Serial Killer, you can’t kill anymore of those SPECIFIC type of people you kill. However, we will let you hangout with them.
Get the picture?
I’m not even blaming the agents here either. This is just another example of the NCAA using its power in the strangest possible way. You can’t be half pregnant(trust me, I’ve tried), yet the rules with agent’s dealings with athletes is the closest we might get.
Go figure. The NCAA, a building, is the first thing to become half pregnant. For the love of Sam Cassell an inanimate object…Good luck Myck Kabongo and may the NCAA rule in favor(or against, depending on the wind) of their own rule.
Follow Joe on Twitter. Just do it….Now @JosephNardone
